Nutmeg grinder

I love freshly grated nutmeg and use if often. What I don't love is each time having to fish a nut out of the jar, then hunt around for where did I put that fine grater, then scrape my fingernails or knuckles on the teeth of said metal grater. So, I thought: why not put nutmeg pieces in a pepper/salt grinder and get a lot of fine grate with a few quick twists, sans bloody knuckles? It hasn't worked out. No matter how I adjust the grind (fine to medium to coarse), it takes forever to get even a quarter teaspoon ground up, leading me to return to the painful method. I am using a quality grinder. Any suggestions out there?

Many years ago I purchased this little tool (I hope the picture uploads). I think it is made by Taylor. Although it isn't perfect, it is good. It makes more tiny shaves than "ground" flecks. I think a good kitchen store would have one, or you could find it on-line.

grinder in dkenworthy's post upthread. I have this. The top pops off if the nutmegs aren't a minimum size, and the nutmeg in the center grinding position is often out of position. It requires a lot if fiddling to get it to work, in my experience.

Oh, YES, sueatmo! I had forgotten about that annoying but necessary "fiddling" with the center nutmeg. This tool grinds one face of the nutmeg flat, but then it stops working because there is no rough surface to shave.

This William Bounds nutmeg grinder is a great tool in theory, but it is poorly designed. I do wish someone would improve upon it.

I have one of those half-cylinder type graters. It's small (maybe 5" tall) and has a lidded opening that holds the nutmeg when not in use. It sits in the spice cabinet and grates a nutmeg easily, no bloody knuckles required.

This is the kind we have too, used mostly by Mr. Rat for eggnog and other cocktails. It's very handy to have the little compartment for the partially used nutmeg and neither of us have ever injured ourselves with it.

Hey, I've been looking for one of these!!! thanks. I normally use a micro palne, but I like the idea of storing the nutmeg with the grater.

I have the Willam - Bounds mentioned above, but I'm not wild about it. The problem I have, is after the seed gets down a bit, the grater no longer wants to grip it. You crank and crank and nothing comes out unless you fiddle with how the seed is postioned. More effort than it's worth and I end up taking the seed out and grabing the micro plane.

But smaller the bit, more likely the micro plane will plane part of your finger. Even with my old fashioned grater (Made in W. Germany), I toss the bits that are too small to hold without harming myself.

I have that one, too. It hangs from a tiny nail on the inside of the upper cabinet that holds the spice carousel, so it NEVER gets lost. I keep lots of small kitchen tools, and charts, on the insides of cabinet doors, useful space that many folks never think of utilizing.

+ a billion on the microplane. I have two because I was constantly using it and it was always being washed, so now I have a backup. Perfect for nutmeg, parmesian, romano, or any old dried up cheese I need to shred.

I use a good deal of nutmeg and when using a microplane to grate the nut I wear a ladies garden glove. The glove is fabric and fits snug. I can hand grate the nut down to a nub without any chance of pain.

When I use the nutmeg mill I break up the nut in a bowl first because I find the mill does a better job using the whole nut in pieces than left whole.Smaller kitchen hammer or nut cracker works to cut the nutmeg in half. I point the nut flatside up in the mill.

But, another use for a nutmeg mill or pepper grinder is to grind whole cloves. They both do an outstanding job of grinding whole cloves in small batches. I detach the clove head from the stem and grind just the head. The stems I mill with coffee beans in my coffee grinder.